Automatic furniture leveling device



pt 936- A. HERVE 2,054,977

AUTOMATIC FURNITURE LEVELING DEVICE Filed June 1, 1955 Patented Sept.22, 1936 UNITED STATES 2.054.917 AUTOMATIC FURNITURE LEVELING DEVICEAlexandre Herv, Cllchy, France .1 Application June 1, 1935, Serial no:24,511

5 Claims. (01. 45-139 It often occurs, either because the floor isun--even, or because the legs of a piece of furniture are not all exactly ofthe same length, that said piece of furniture does not restsimultaneously upon all of its feet. In this case it was necessary, upto the present time, to make use of wooden shims, which had to be outexactly of the height of the unevenness, which constituted a delicate,tiresome, and in some cases frequent work.

There also exists a device for automatically leveling the feet of apiece of furniture, which is intended to be fitted in a recess at theend of these feet themselves. This device includes a steel ball orroller, which can move and wedge between two superposed inclined guidingsurfaces, the upper inclined surface beingrigid with the foot of thepiece of furniture and the other one being rigid with a packing pieceslidable vertically with respect to said foot. This ball or rollerwedges automatically between the two in- The object of the presentinvention clined surfaces when the packing pieces project from the undersurface of the foot of jthe piece of furniture a distance equal to thatnecessary in order that the piece of furniture may rest simultaneouslyon all of its feet.

is to provide a device of this kind including means for keeping the ballat the upper end of the inclined surface of the packing piece on whichit rests when the foot of the piece of furniture is slowly moveddownwardly until it comes into contact with the ground. The provision ofthese means is necessary for the good working of the device; otherwisethe ball would run down to the lower end of the inclined surface onwhich it rests and the subsequent wedging of the ball between the twoinclined surfaces could no longer take place. The means in questioninclude a horizontal or hollow part provided at the top of the lowerinclined surface, that is to say the inclined surface carried by thepacking piece, forming a kind of housing for the ball, and a part, atthe top of the upper inclined surface (which is rigid with the foot ofthe piece of furniture), inclined in a direction opposed to that of saidlast mentioned inclined surface, so as to push the ball out from thehousing above mentioned onto the lower inclined surface, where it willbe able to wedge in proper position.

Other features of the device according to the I present invention willresult from the following detailed description of some specificembodiments thereof. I

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be hereinafterdescribed, with reference to the accompanying drawing, given merely byway of example, and in which:

Fig. l is a vertical sectional view of the foot of the leg of a piece offurniture provided with a a, leveling device according to-the presentinvention, in the position occupied by this device when the foot is notin contact with the ground;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view analogous to Fig. 1,

showing the leveling device in the position it 10 occupies when thepacking piece comes into contact with the ground, when the foot of thepiece of furniture is allowed to bear upon the u d; 1'

Fig. 3 is an analogous sectional view, showing 15 the position of theparts at the end of the downward movement of the foot of the piece offurniture; I

Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view showing the ball wedged between thetwo inclined surfaces; 9 Fig. 5 is a cross sectional view on the line5-5 of Fig. 4; Y

Figs. 6 and '7 are diagrammatical views explaining in what manner apiece of furniture can be. caused to rest evenly upon all of its feet.25

to 5, the foot'l of the piece of furniture is recessed at 2 and theautomatic leveling device is engaged in thisrecess 2. This deviceincludes a cup-shaped member 3 the bottom 3 of which is inclined andcon- 3 stitutes the upper inclined surface above referred to. Thelateral edges of member 3 are fixed to the foot I of. the piece offurniture by means of screws 4. In this member 3 is engaged a packingpiece 5 adapted to slide vertically there- 35 in. Theupper face 5 ofthis piece 5 is inclined in the same direction as surface 3 when thefoot I rests upon the ground (Figs. 3 and 4) The inclination of surface5, which constitutes the lower inclined surface above referred to, is 40smaller than that of surface 3'. In other words, the two inclinedsurfaces 3* and 5 make with each other, in the position of Figs. 3 and4, a certain angle a which must be relatively small, for instanceaveraging 10". A ball 6 can move -46 between these two inclinedsurfaces.

The packing piece 5 is maintained in member 3 (Fig. -1) when the foot ofthe piece of furniture is lifted off the ground owing to the provisionof flanges or projections 3 and 3 50 upon which rest the ends 5 and 5 ofinclined surface 5.

Furthermorathe inclined surface .i is provided; at its upper end, with arecess or housing 1 in which ball 6 can-remain when the foot I of thepiece of furniture is moved downwardly (Fig. 2) and packing piece comesto bear upon the ground. Finally, at the upper end of the inclinedsurface 3*, there is provided a portion 8 which is inclined in theopposite direction with respect to inclined surface 3. This part 8 isadapted to act upon ball 6 and to push it in the direction of arrow 1',out from its housing I (Fig. 3), when the foot of the piece of furnitureis moved downwardly. The ball then comes into the position shown indotted lines in Fig. 3, that is to say at the upper 5, ready to bewedged between inclined surfaces 3* and 5* if the piece of furnituredoes not rest evenly upon all of its feet.

In order to obtain a satisfactory stability of a piece of furniture suchas table 9 (Figs. 6 and 7) that is to say if the under surfaces of thefour clined. surfaces 3' feet of the table are located in the sameplane,

' the leveling devices are in the position of, Fig. 3,

the balls being located at the upper parts of the inclined surfaces, inthe position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 3. If either the table or theground is out of true, so that one of the feet is located at a slightdistance above the ground (for instance foot I), the inclined surface 3which is rigid with the foot moves upwardly relatively to inclinedsurface 5*, so that the ball is allowed to roll downwardly along saidsurface 5' until it is wedgedbetween inclined surfaces 3 and 5 (positionof Figs. 4 and 6).

If, when the table is said table rests only upon three feet, forinstance I, I, I, the fourth foot I is pushed vertically against theground, as if it were desired to cause the table to pivot about thediagonal :c-a: by

moving foot l downwardly and foot I upwardly. This brings the devicecarried by foot I into the position illustrated by Fig. 3, the ball 6being driven out from its seat I by the inclined part 8 and engagingbetween the two inandisoastocomeinthe position shown in dotted lines inFig. 3. If now the diagonally opposite foot I is pushed downwardly, soas to apply it against the ground, thus lifting foot l off the ground,the packing piece 5 is allowed to slide downwardly in membet '3 until itcomes to rest upon the ground. In e course of this movement the ball- 6has ,rolled downwardly upon inclined surface 5' .until it is'wedgedbetween surfaces 5- and 3. The table then bears evenly through its four'feet upon the ground. In case of subsequen warping modifying thisrelative position of v, e parts, the correct adjustment is automaticallyobtained.

'Of course the two leveling devices according to the present inventionmiglfi be disposed differently, for instance symmetrically, that is tosay arranged in opposite directions in the front feet or the rear feet(arrow F). I when the piece of furniture is not provided with feet, theleveling devices according to the present invention are fitted under thefront or rear edges of said piece of furniture.

part of inclined surface to be able to placed on the ground,

in said member from In a general manner, while I have, in the abovedescription, disclosed what I deem to be a practical and efllcientembodiment of the present invention, it should be well understood that Ido not wish to be limited'thereto, as there might be changes made in thearrangement, disposition and form of the parts without departing fromthe principle of the present invention as comprehended within the scopeof the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. A device of the type described for use in connection with pieces offurniture and similar articles which member rigidly a piece slidablemember, adapted to bear upon the ground, said parts being so shaped thatthe under surface of said member and the upper surface of said piece areboth inclined in the same direction with respect to the ground and makea predetermined sharp angle with each other when said piece is restingupon the ground, a rolling element interposed between these two inclinedsurfaces so as wedge between them, and means for maintaining saidrolling element at the upper end of the second mentioned inclinedsurface when the piece carrying said last mentioned surface is restingupon the ground without the weight of the piece of furniture beingtransmitted thereto.

2. A device of the type described for use in connection with pieces offurniture and similar articles which comprises, in combination, a memberrigidly fixed to said'piece of furniture, a piece adapted to bearuponthe ground slidflxed to said piece of furniture,

able vertically with respect to said member, said respect to the groundand make a predetermined relatively small angle with each other whensaid piece is bearing upon the ground, a rolling ele-,

ment interposed between these two inclined surfaces so as to be able towedge betweenthem, a seat for said rolling element for maintaining it atthe upper end of the second mentioned inclined surface when the piececarrying said last mentioned surface is resting upon the ground withoutthe weight of the piece of furniture being transmitted to said piece,and means carried by said first mentioned member for driving saidrolling element out from said seat when the weight of the piece offurniture is transmitted to said piece. I

3. A device according to claim 2 in which the last mentioned meansconsist of an inclined surface carried by said member, said surfacebeing inclined in a direction opposed to that of the first mentionedinclined surface carried by said member.

4. A device according to claim 2 further including means for preventingsaid piece movable dropping out from said member.

5. A device according to claim 2 further including inwardly extendingprojections carried by the lower part of said first mentioned member,and outwardly extending flanges carried by said piece movable insaidmember adapted to cooperate with said projections for preventing saidpiece from dropping outfrom said member.

ALExANDRE HERVE.

comprises, in' combination, a

vertically with respect to said

